Territorial
by BlazingLegend
Summary: When the girls are faced with a little problem of territory, they find it hard to keep their cools. But, who knows? Maybe mermaids are more territorial than everyone thinks... Oneshot.


Territorial

_When the girls are faced with a little problem of territory, they find it hard to keep their cools. But, who knows? Maybe mermaids are more territorial than everyone thinks... Oneshot._

* * *

"Cleo, _hurry up!_" Rikki Chadwick whined at the foot of her best friend's window. "We are _so _late!"

A familiar brunette stuck her head out of the open window and waved.

"Rikki, I'll be down in _two _minutes," She called, retreating back through the curtains. "And I mean it this time!"

Rikki groaned and tapped her foot impatiently. "I'll be here _forever..._"

But, good to her word, Cleo came bounding down the front steps – well, _three _minutes later. But who's counting?

"About time you got out of there," Rikki tutted playfully. "I was probably going to die of old age if you took any longer!" She teased.

"Whatever," Cleo laughed and gave Rikki a light shove. "But hey, you're not usually impatient – well, _that _impatient anyway,"

Rikki glared at her.

"What was the rush?"

Rikki grinned sheepishly. "Personally, I would've let you slide another five minutes. But I was too scared of being decapitated once we get to the beach, where freak Emma will be waiting for us,"

Cleo checked her watch nervously. "I wasn't that late, was I?"

Rikki chuckled. "You wouldn't believe it, my friend."

"We are sooooo _dead,_" Cleo moaned.

"More like frozen fishsticks," Rikki commented with a grin.

"Darn your twisted sense of humour!"

Rikki chuckled as they came upon the secret entrance to their little beach for special mermaid swims.

Rikki grinned. "You ready to face the dragon?"

"I really wish you wouldn't talk about her like that," Cleo muttered, but then shrugged. "But yes. Well no, not really, but yes."

Rikki laughed and pulled her friend toward the beach, and the sound of crashing waves.

The two ran up to a patch of boulders sitting just by the waves, where a young blonde was sitting atop them.

"Emma!" Cleo exclaimed enthusiastically. _Dear Lord, if I ever did anything good in my life, please, tell me she forgot her watch today._

Emma hopped off the rock she had been sitting on, rather skilfully, and turned to her friends. "Hey guys!" She grinned.

_Thank the heavens. _Rikki and Cleo thought unanimously.

Emma's face crumpled into a frown. "But you're late,"

_We're dead._

_Frozen fishsticks after all. _

"Guys, you do realise I don't appreciate tardiness, right?"

_Get ready to face the dragon._

XXX

Rikki rubbed at her ears – correction, her _ringing _ears. And by the look on Cleo's face, Rikki could tell she felt just about the same way.

Rikki groaned as Emma went into another monologue.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Cleo's voice cut Emma off and the two blondes watched as the girl stood.

"Oh no Cleo, don't think you can –"

"I'm serious, listen!" Cleo frowned, her face a picture of pure concentration as she tried to listen to something the others couldn't hear.

"I don't hear anything," Rikki said, tugging at one of her plaits, simply thinking that this was some ploy to get Emma off their backs for a while.

Cleo took a few steps away from them, motioning for her friends to be quiet. "I think its... _footsteps._"

Rikki shrugged. "It'll just be Lewis or something, relax."

Cleo shook her head. "No. He would've seen our footprints and called out. He's at home all day on some project anyway,"

Rikki swallowed hard and looked at Emma. "So it might not be him, but that doesn't mean there's anything to worry about, right?"

Cleo turned to them, frowning. "I think it does. No one knows about this place, Rikki. Just us, Lewis, and the boys. It's meant to be _secluded._"

"So, what should we do?" Rikki asked nonchalantly, still not convinced that this was a problem. "Hide? Come on, it'll just be some random person. That's a little ridiculous." Rikki stood up from her rock and folded her arms.

"Maybe we could just hide behind a boulder," Emma suggested. "If anyone finds us, we could just say, I dunno, we were getting changed back into normal clothes."

Cleo shrugged. "That's not a bad idea,"

Rikki felt the attention shifted onto her. "Oh, _fine,_" She caved. "But when we all realise this was unnecessary, you'd better apologise."

Emma grinned. "I wouldn't count on it,"

The three girls ducked behind the largest boulder, excluding the one that was directly facing the entrance, because they'd be seen for sure. They waited a few minutes, and eventually heard the soft _pitter pat _of footsteps on sand.

"Cool!" The heard a – what sounded like a male – or could have just been, in Rikki's opinion, a very deep – female voice.

"This is going to be so great!" The voice ranted on. "I can have a special beach to swim from, with no annoying big brothers tagging along!"

The girls looked at each other in horror. They couldn't let someone else take _their _beach!

Before Rikki or Emma could stop her, Cleo stumbled out of their little hiding place, in plain view of the young boy who looked about sixteen or seventeen – their age.

"What do you think you're doing?" She asked angrily, her plaits flying. She was too anxious that they were about to lose their special place for secret mermaid swims – and Lewis's favourite fishing spot – to really care what she was doing, or how she looked to this boy.

"Uhh," The boy stammered, bewildered at this furious brunette who just came out of nowhere. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Cleo ignored the boy for a second, and turned to her friends, who were still hiding. She pointed to them and gestured for them to come up. They shook their heads.

She shot them a threatening glare. "Get up here _now,_" She hissed, pointing at the ground below her feet. They hurried to do as she asked, never having seen Cleo so passionate before.

The three girls stood side by side, glaring furiously at the boy who stood before them. The fate of their perfect little beach hung in the balance, and they weren't about to just _give it up._

The boy gulped. "H-how did you get here?" He stammered.

Rikki took a step forward, fixing him with her venomous gaze. "This is _our _beach," She hissed. "We were here way before you, and we aren't leaving easy."

The boy took a step back from Rikki's intimidating form. "This beach doesn't belong to anyone," He said quietly, still very scared of the three angry girls. "I found it. Everyone can use it."

Rikki twirled her locket, muttering something unintelligible.

"Go find another beach," Cleo said simply.

The brunette boy panted and hugged his ugly faded hat to his chest. "But I have brothers, and they won't leave me alone whenever I want to swim,"

"Oh, I feel so _bad _for you." Rikki said sarcastically.

"Rikki!" Emma scolded. She walked toward the boy, and smiled at him. "Listen," She said.

"Oh, here she goes, being all diplomatic," Rikki complained.

"Shut it." Emma hissed and faced the boy again. "Listen, we've swum here a long time, and we really like this beach. Could you, I dunno, let us keep it?" She asked hopefully.

The boy frowned. "Hey, you're that old swim champ, aren't you? Oh, can you do some laps for me, _please?_" He begged.

Rikki snorted. "Now can we hurt him?"

"No Rikki!" Emma chastised, slapping her on the arm.

"I promise then I'll leave you alone!" The boy shouted over their bickering.

All three girls turned to him.

Rikki looked at him, unimpressed. "We're listening."

"If she does some laps for me, I promise I'll leave!"

Cleo frowned. "No."

"Come on, please!"

"No."

"I'll never come back again!"

Emma sighed. "Fine, alright,"

Rikki and Cleo turned to her, wide eyed with disbelief. "_Em!_"

They pulled the former swim champ to the side and immediately started lecturing her.

"I mean, if it'll get him away from our beach and us, I say we do it!" Emma argued.

"He won't away for long after he finds out you've got a tail!" Rikki shouted.

Cleo placed a hand on her shoulder. "Rikki, tone it down. He's right there."

Rikki muttered something unintelligible and folded her arms firmly over her chest. "You can't do it, Em."

"Well then what else do we do?"

Cleo cleared her throat. "Well, we could scare him."

Rikki and Emma turned to her, mouths agape.

"Just a little bit?"

Emma opened her mouth to lecture the brunette, but Rikki cut her off.

"She may have something there."

"Rikki! That's about as bad as showing him my tail!" Emma scolded. _How can she be so ridiculous?_

"No, seriously," Rikki continued. "Just scare him a little bit. Move the water, freeze it, maybe boil it a little. We could convince him the beach is haunted."

Emma scoffed. "A haunted beach? Are you serious?"

Rikki rolled her eyes. "Okay, maybe that is a little ridiculous, but we could go off and use our powers on the water. Just scare him a little. Convince him to never come back." She explained.

"And if he doesn't get it and returns?"

Rikki grinned. "Then we escalate,"

Emma looked at her two friends and sighed. "Fine. I'm in."

XXX

"Hey, what's your name?" Rikki demanded as she pointed at the boy who threatened to steal their beach.

"It's rude to point," The boy said, pushing Rikki's hand out of his face. "And it's Jacob. My name is Jacob."

Rikki rolled her eyes and walked away, muttering, "Stupid name."

Emma walked up to the boy, a fake smile on her face. "Don't worry about her." She said. "I'm just gonna go talk with my friends, okay? I'll be back in two seconds,"

The boy nodded silently and Emma dashed off. She met up with Cleo and Rikki behind a far off boulder, crouching down next to them.

"So, what's the plan?" She asked.

"Cleo raises a tentacle of water out of the ocean, if he tries to touch it, you freeze it. If he does anything else, I boil away the tentacle. Hopefully that'll freak him out." Rikki explained with a grin.

Emma sighed and rolled her eyes. "Let's just get this over with,"

Cleo nodded and raised a tentacle out of the crashing waves. The three girls heard a yelp of astonishment, and Rikki snickered. As the boy reached out to touch it, the tentacle froze over. Another yelp.

Emma peered up over the rock. "He's still there," She whispered.

Rikki grinned and curled her fingers.

The boy ran from the beach, fully, and very loudly, expressing his bewilderment.

"Yes!" The three girls cried and high fived. They hugged and ran to the waves, dancing around happily.

"We saved our beach!" Cleo yelled with joy as she exchanged another hug with Rikki and the two girls jumped up and down.

"Aw, man!" Emma yelled in outrage from behind them.

Rikki stepped away from Cleo and raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Emma looked at her watch and pouted. "Now we're really late!" She cried.

Rikki rolled her eyes and shoved Emma into the surf. "Just shut up and swim,"


End file.
